The UDM welcomes the decision of the Olympic governing body to suspend Mr Chuene and the ASA Board for the despicable manner in which they handled the entire saga involving Caster Semenya.

We hope that this is the beginning of a process to bring all the responsible parties to justice, and not a quick rap over the knuckles before returning to business as usual. A simple apology will not suffice after the sustained campaign of deception and deviance conducted by Mr Chuene and ‘his’ Board. The nation and the President were blatantly lied to and those few who showed a shred of integrity (such as the coach) were treated with disdain. As for the harm and suffering inflicted on Caster Semenya, there is no amount of punishment that will ever compensate for that.

We cannot countenance that Mr Chuene and his cronies should ever be allowed to come close to our young athletes again.